RSS

How-To Geek

Windows 8 Lock Screen

Windows 8 brings an entirely new lock screen experience. Not only does your desktop look beautiful when it first boots up, but it can actually display useful data on the screen when it’s locked—a count of emails, messages, and other interesting data. In fact, you will be able to install applications that hook into the login screen and show whatever data you want there, as long as it fits the Windows 8 UI specs.

From the lock screen, you can swipe the screen up with either the touch interface or the mouse to reveal the login screen, which can be a standard password, a PIN code, or even a touch screen swipe password, where you touch the picture in various places to unlock, instead of using a password.

Note: we grabbed these images from Microsoft since we weren’t able to get high-quality pictures of the lock screen.

It’s hard to see in this screenshot, but you might notice in the bottom right-hand corner, there’s a little notice from Windows Update saying that your PC will restart in 2 days to install security updates. That’s right, no more annoying Windows Update popup.

Using Windows 7 Applications (and Taskbar) in Windows 8

My Twitter feed has been flooded with people asking about whether you can use Windows 7 applications in Windows 8, and also if you can use the Windows 7 style Taskbar instead of the Metro interface. The answer is that yes, all applications will continue to work perfectly, and the Windows 7 taskbar is still there—but sadly, as of right now, the Windows 7 Start Menu is completely gone, replaced with Metro instead.

To reach the Windows 7 style desktop, you can either click the Desktop tile in the Metro interface, hit the Windows + M shortcut key, or you can simply Alt+Tab or open a Windows 7 application some other way. You’ll immediately be taken to a very familiar screen, albeit lacking the Start Orb. Everything else throughout Windows 8 works just about how you’d expect it to, except clicking on the Start button will take you to the Metro screen.

Start at that screen long enough, and you’ll start to ask yourself the question I did… wait a second! Where’s the Shut Down Button! How do I restart?! And you’d be right to ask that question. The answer is that you need to use the Win + I shortcut key combination to pull up the Metro settings menu (more useful for Metro applications, of course)…

Since we’re already looking at the Windows 7 style side of things, we should talk about Explorer.

Windows Explorer Updates in Windows 8

There’s been a lot of complaints about the new Ribbon interface in Windows 8, especially since it does take up a lot of screen space—but after using it for a while, it’s actually quite natural to use, especially since you can keep the Ribbon minimized most of the time. Update: turns out, you can force the Ribbon to stay minimized all the time.

For instance, here’s the default view with the Ribbon expanded:

And here’s what it looks like with the Ribbon minimized. So much simpler, even clean looking. All the functionality is there, easily accessed from the Ribbon should you need it.

You can also use the Quick Access Toolbar, and add a couple of useful options on there. This ends up with an Explorer window that’s actually a lot cleaner than before while giving you more functionality.

One of the nicer changes in Windows 8 is the new file copy dialogs, which came in really handy during a bunch of file copy jobs I was doing. The default view gives you way more information about your file transfer, and seems to be a lot more accurate than all the other versions of Windows.

Where it gets really interesting is once you hit a few conflicts—you’ll see a dialog that’s somewhat similar to previous versions, but cleaner. Click the “Choose” option, however…

And you’ll end up on a dialog that allows you to manually choose which files you want to keep, with a little preview of each file. Double-click on any of the files, and you can open them up. It’s extremely useful.

Mounting ISO Images!

That’s right, you can finally mount an ISO image or VHD directly from Explorer. So useful.

Keep reading for more about the new Task Manager, more details about Metro-style data sharing, the new Control Panel, and the new Refresh feature.

Comments (170)

the question I have is tho…. how does non-metro stuff run in “classic” mode?
it’s rather important since I can’t see much getting done in “metro” in say 3DSMax…… (ok they can redesign the app, but 3d work with touch…?)

For a UI designed for tablet and touchscreen use, there sure are a lot of Win key shortcuts. Metro for your phone, then the Xbox 360 (well, in Fall) and now Windows. This will be a tough sell for business customers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if those waiting on another XP just up and switch to a user friendly flavor of Linux.

installed it in virtualbox, since vmware wasn’t working with it.
metro’s pretty slick, buuuut

1. How can you add custom tiles to the new metro start menu? Say an explorer link to ‘my computer’?
Also I accidentally unpinned the ‘desktop’ tile, how do i get it back?? I cannot find anywhere that lets me customise or add tiles

2. Will the RTM version of Windows 8 come with Windows Media Centre?

3. Will the RTM version actually be called Windows ‘8’ or are they reverting to a name like Vista?

Almost right again. Who wants a Reset that unloads all your programs? What we need is a Reset that reinstall Windows saving programs and data.
Almost useful again. Note that most of these new features force you through the “Metro” interface. This translates as- one or more steps between what you want and what you get.

The default Metro interface had best not be the default! Microsoft needs to have the choice of default interface be declared during installation. Then, if one wants to change it, use a setting in the Control Panel. Forcing non-Metro users to have to change to the traditional interface is counter-productive. Why should most serious PC users have to go through some routine every time Windows-8 starts to get rid of the Metro interface and get to the traditional desktop interface?

I’m wondering about porting installed apps from an existing Vista/W7 PC..
For example:

Is Easy Transfer from preceding Windows versions supported?
Is the installation structure similar.. registry, disk locations etc so program port tools like Laplink PCMover, Anovasoft Softrescue etc can be used?
How would tools like Paragon’s System Upgrade Utilities be affected..?

And conversely, does W8 do anything to separate the OS/registry from applications, drivers etc, making reinstallation either easy or even virtually unnecessary?

I was reluctant to upgrade from XP to 7. I spent $300 on two family packs (it was a good deal). I’m very happy with 7. 8 is goning to have to be almost free for me to change. I don’t care how good they make. Enough is enough already. I don’t see this being a money maker. My machine with XP still runs great.

@Paul DeLeeuw
“Almost right again. Who wants a Reset that unloads all your programs? What we need is a Reset that reinstall Windows saving programs and data.”

I do. You never know when a virus or other malware are hiding in those programs and possibly cause problems that make you want to reset in the first place. So I think it’s a good idea that Reset works like this.

After the iPad War all computers are tablets. +2 internets if you get the bastardized reference, otherwise yawn, unimpressed here. Have to see how badly the manufacturers screw it up once they start installing their “customized” versions on customers machines. Imagine, if you will, a metro interface chock full of craplets installed by the manufacturer and made immune to the “Reset” button. Then there’s the whole how much registry hacking will I have to do to make it do what I want it to instead of what MS thinks I want it to do.

Metro Interface – Not Interested, it looks slower to use than traditional interfaces for multitasking.

Faster Boot Times – Can’t Complain

Less Memory Usage than Windows 7. Can’t Complain

Windows Explorer overhauled – Ribbon is the worst thing Microsoft have come up with since Windows Me, it is far slower than traditional interfaces and far slower, it also takes up more space on your screen, I want this to die.

ARM processors are now supported – This should have been developed completely separately, a jack of all trades….

Hyper-V is now part of Windows – How many people need virtual machines? I use them myself, but I am not the average user and am quite happy to run VMware.

Taskbar can now span multiple monitors – nice to see this.

Universal Spell Check across Metro applications. – Well I don’t intend on using Metro…

Windows Live Integration for Sync – Great, lets put all my personal info in the cloud…

I really don’t get y’ll… Vista is just the as windows 7.. Well one ajust here another there.. But still it’s like windows 7.. So how come you call vista” ugly” nd nt win7?!?… Lol
And about the “metro” … If you don’t like it .. Don’t install it.. Simple.. Now y’all come here talking about how ugly the system is.. That actually makes some of who don’t even know what a “OS” is.. Chose mac or Linux

Having issues with installing with VirtualBox? Take snapshots before the issue and keep reloading it until it installs. That’s what I’m doing now as the 1st installation worked but hung and I had to delete it after I forced it to shutdown it wouldn’t repair..was having issues even starting the reinstall but you have to go into your VirtualBox folders and delete all the files relating to the Windows 8 install before installing a new one if it is going to be named the same. Good idea to delete any installs that failed anyways though..don’t forget to delete the virtual hard disk. I have my new install of 32bit just about finished installing now it took awhile but issues are expected because this is pre-beta. Once you have it up and running don’t forget to take a snapshot again in case it hangs then you can just reload it..I had forgot to take one the 1st time I installed but won’t this time in fact I have took 3 so far ;)

One thing I want to know is whether or not the Kinect will integrate with the Metro interface, since MS has said they may start officially supporting Kinect on PC. That would be a great solution for people who don’t necessarily want a touchscreen but want better integration for the Metro interface than a mouse appears to provide.

I am up and running on virtualbox, however, I could not get the client add-ons to install. Until then, I can’t get full resolution out of it. Has anyone been able to get these installed? When I tried the Windows 7 add-ons, I received an incorrect platform error.

For those people having trouble getting the VirtualBox up and running, make sure your host machine can handle 64-bit virtualization. You may need to enable VT-X/AMD-V through your BIOS. Along those same lines, make sure the hardware acceleration options are enabled in your virtual machine’s settings.

Thanks for posting those keyboard shortcuts, I was wondering how to get the “charms” to display!

Sadly….. This is yawn material. Metro would be awesome w/ Kinect support, as for business use wow…. We won’t upgrade here till Win17 by the look of things….

Unless this is a cheap upgrade I’ll bypass, maybe if I ever get a tablet maybe i’ll try WIn8…. Doubt it i’ll stick with Android platform!!! But downloading now and will play with it. But like everyone else says Metro is to bulky, not the “Bubble” I was hearing it was going to be… so oh well maybe Win9 will go back to WIn95 days, maybe 3.1?

The DISABLE INTERFACE IMMERSIVE
Some did not like the interface Immersive: if you want the classic Start menu, like Windows 7, go into the registry and find the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer at this point change the RPenabled value from 1 to 0.

Flash doesn’t seem to work in the full-screen Metro interface IE, but works fine in the desktop version. Seems kind of odd. Can’t seem to get it to split the screen into two windows as shown in the article either. Added new tiles from the list of apps without issue, but it doesn’t appear to let you increase the size of added tiles to 2 squares, though I can shrink existing 2-square tiles to 1 square. Perhaps the size depends on the individual app added?

It’s been said before that every other version of Windows sux… Xp was great, Vista Sucked, Windows 7 Great, Windows 8 Metro sux…
Seems this means I will wait for Windows 9 before I upgrade…
I am sorry, but the whole Metro interface just looks crappy to me. I don’t want to store my stuff in any version of the Cloud, and I don’t want a Windows APP store… I’m not keen on the ribbon approach…
I boot from an SSD so faster boot times are not an issue…
So far I see nothing much that I like…

If you want choice get an Ubuntu OS. To me the interface of Win8 is very reminiscent of the Unity interface from Ubuntu. But unlike with Windows Ubuntu will also allow you to remove Unity and replace it with an other interface. And unlike Windows you always get the ultimate Ubuntu edition, since they have no such thing as a restricted starter or basic version for the poor people. Theirs is all for free. Does anyone really care anymore that gaming on a Linux isn’t perfectly supported by all games ? The modern gamer does his/her gaming on a wide screen TV with a PS3 console or, yes from MS, a XBox360. We only need our PC for work, study and to mod our console safe-games^^ or to download from Usenet. (a modern gamer doesn’t download torrents anymore, Usenet is much more elite, faster and safer)

Great tour of the new OS! I may actually buy a new Windows computer; bought last new computer in 2005. Is there a dual pane file viewer (ie, Windows Explorer)? Also, what’s the big deal over the ISO mounting? If you think it’s cool, you probably already know how to do it without it being native to the OS. Others probably don’t know how to make an ISO, making the feature somewhat useless for a large number of users. Overall, looks cool. I might start using Windows as often as I use Ubuntu.

I do find the interface to look very similar to unity. I also wonder how they manage to use less ram which is a real switch for them, however experimenting with the interface is a bummer. I do however like a ribbon, for me it seems to categorize things the way I would, but I get everyone’s frustration to chaging things when you are use to something. Putting this in a VM to see what it may offer. The office is upgrading to 7 at the moment, much like everyone else. Looks like M$ is shooting themselves in the foot again.

i dont see why every one is hates the idea of a widows store. Its simply all of the software for windows in one easy to find place. remember, not every one reads how to geek. most user just google looking for software and get frustrated and give up.

I dnt knw if its wat most ppl were expectin guys,Not much has changed. Im disappointd.The icons are stil the same.Yeah de are a few minor changes but they not that wow for me to wana try it.Plus the transformation skin is exactly what i see now.Thought the original wil b way much better.

does it work with the Kinnect? I heard windows 8 could be controlled with Kinnect, (think Minority Reports but without the stupid little gloves!) not supprised if its not in the Pre Beta but I dont have Kinnect so wont be able to test, but am really intreaged by this… :)

I tried installing this on my windows 7 machine using virtualbox, but after it loads the files, it says restart your computer, along with a few error codes. the error codes flash on the screen.(black screen with white writing).

I installed Windows 8 last night and am here this morning to say it sucks, I couldn’t stand that metro interface. cell phones and touch screens may be the thing of the future, I don’t even own a cell phone, by choice, I don’t need or want to have a phone on me every where I go, anyways, I won’t be upgrading to that crap ever. If this is the route windows is taking, I will be switching to linux unless linux tries to copy windows once again. I would gladly give up all my favorite windows past time, like gaming, just NOT to have to ever use that ridiculous operating system. Linux is no better, it has it’s fair share of problems and all, but it doesn’t look like an over sized “smartphone” anyways, enough of my ranting, you know what they say about opinions…. LOL ohhhhh and I couldn’t even freaking find the shut down, restart menu unless I did a damn ctrl alt delete, so ridiculous!!!

ohhhh and one more complaint, not that every one uses a desktop wirelessly, but I do and it didnt install correctly my netgear drivers so I couldnt use the internet at all on it, and nothing I did would fix that, just something else to consider, not that, like all things in life, anyone is going to listen without trying it for themselves.

Good article, but I really don’t like the Metro interface. When I first saw the image and before I’d read the title, I thought this article was going to be either about mobile phones or something on the lines of Rainmeter. I can imagine the “I’d rather cut off my arm than put down my iphone” demographic getting on with it, but it looks far more like a lightweight toy than a serious operating system. Will business and professional users want that? I doubt it.

I installed it just now. NONE OF METRO INTERFACE SOFTWARE WORKS!!!! I click on anything, it just doesn’t reply, doesn’t open the program, except for desktop, control panel, and a couple of other basic programs. Touchpad gestures are gone, too… Any help would be truly appriciated.

The self-contained Hyper-V feature will finally make it possible to run a separate virtual machine (VM) within your PC that you can use for online browsing, online gaming, Facebook, etc. and anything that could possibly expose your machine to viruses and worms. Then to get that new PC look and feel again, you can simply blow away that VM once every 6 months or so and create a new one!!!!

Right so ive been using this for several hours now on a touch pc and……

wow. This is brilliant! All that needs work is the keyboard and mouse usability but using the touch screen is amazing!

Really with windows 7 the touch screen wasn’t that much use with using the OEM software, but i decided to install this on a logical partition, and i can see using this as my primary os. No crashes, no problems of any sorts.

What if I don’t have that resolution? I use an eeePC, with a native resolution of 1024X600… Any way to fix this? Win 8 runs a lot more smoothly on such a week config (not to mention the 40% improvement in battery life). I wouldn’t wanna uninstall it, if there’s any way to solve this resolution issue.

Ugly, and less efficient is what I see. You can’t be all things to all people. Trying to make it mobile, give it a phone interface and radically change how the system works will piss off a lot of people.

Work change from windows yet. Everything is great about the operating system for improvements, except for the metro interface. The worst ever for PC’s. It is great for a phone or a touch pad of some sort, but what the heck do i need with that kind of interface with a mouse and keyboard on my PC. it is so cluttered and just nasty looking. I like my personalized desktop as the main event not just an after thought you have to click to bring up. I wish they would make it so that you could pick either type of interface at start up, either the metro stlye for touch device, or the old desktop and start menu for non touch PC devices. It is not like they are going away tomorrow. The PC will still be around for a while to come, and they need to still orient their OS around us old PC users that have not gone to touchy this and touchy that. Everything else though looks like it is going to be great about it. But if you can’t interface to it the way you want what is the point. I can tell you that i will definitely stick with windows 7 for now. I absolutely hate this new interface. But i said that about windows 95 when it came out, and now many years later I love that start menu that windows 95 started. So I will have to wait and see if i come around to it, but right now i absolutely hate it.

Nice review! I see some good things as well as a few things I don’t care for. As a hindsight, I would like to say I could see this coming due to the drastic visual changes with the XBox 360s UI. I’m going to download it anyway and do a VirtualBox VM. My question is, how long can we use it before this release expires?

Got it running in VirtualBox. After all the hype I can confidently say that not only am I not impressed, I am a little disappointed that Microsoft considers Windows 8 the “next big thing”. Not hyped for this one at all.

Not better than windows 7.Mere change in interface is not making it more productive.In my case none of METRO interface icons except Desktop, Windows Explorer and Control Panel is working.In windows7 when I brows internet I am able to launch any application by going to start menu but in windows8 I have to first minimize explorer and then launch an application from desktop shortcut. And in windows explorer The Ribbon is consuming all the space, almost all option were present in windows7 in some way. Unable to launch an application when we do some other things on net or in windows explorer is a drawback.

I do not know how it is better than windows7( I know some more extra tools are available in this). And why anyone will spend money on this “going to be expensive stuff”. One thing I admit is, it is little bit faster than windows7.

Whats all this about a touch screen? leave the touch screen to the dang phones. I want my keyboard. This will turn out like Windows ME. To much of a change to fast,ended up one big screw up for Microsoft.

It comes to this, Microsoft is trying something new. I respect that. If it fails it will be just another two year wait till they release a fixed version. I like the ideas behind the new OS and I’m glat to see new fresh ides (even if they may be a tad bit stolen) and I’m glad you can minimize the ribbon. GO MICROSOFT! But I’ll stick to android on my mobile

I have been using Windows 8 Preview for about a week.
It feels like a kludge and sluggish compared to Windows 7, but the sluggishness could be because it is such an early release. The Apps have no bearing yet on the average computer user, though it might have for a heavy smartphone or iPad device users. Therefore, the Metro interface is a pain to use and detracts from the physical beauty of what can be done with the Windows 7 interface.

For me, Windows 7 has lots of eye candy, which makes my 12+ hours of usage per day a relative pleasure. Metro is just too staid.

It seems that every time Microsoft comes out with something new, the location of things keep changing. My marketplace is the home user, specifically those of 55+ who want to use their old computer forever since they live on relatively fixed incomes. Changing things like the location of the Start Menu and all the items that appear in it is really counter productive.

Until Microsoft addresses this market place, which it seems will never happen, Linux is a way that my aging population extends its computer’s usefulness for several years. It is only my inability to effectively sell the solution to them that prevents its wider acceptance.

It would be great if someone invented a “killer” app exclusively for Linux, otherwise it will never overtake or even come close to the saturation that Windows and Mac have.

Cant launch a single metro app. With the Win Phone like UI up on my virtual box the only thing I can launch is Desktop, control panel and a couple of other system items. This is the second install, first was on a Netbook with the same results. Why cant I launch the apps like Piano, Air Craft, Alarms, etc. Nothing works…. It’s garbage to me right now..

Just installed on my HP. Only issue I see so far is that my screen brightness is at the lowest level of visibility, however the setting in the OS is set to max. Obviously a driver issue but cannot install a Win 7 driver in a Dev version…only Beta if we’re lucky….

interesting design and seems to work well. I really don’t mind the metro but I’d rather have that be more optional rather than required. Hopefully they will reintigrate the regular start menu into Windows 8 too because I have a hard time finding programs I’ve installed that aren’t on my desktop already. Also Windows 8 seems to be even more dependent on access to the internet the windows 7 which is something that I do not like in the slightest.

Thanks for all the comments guys. You made my mind up. After reading the article I was thinking of changing my ways and trying it. I’ll just stick with XP and Linux.

Hey Mike. Linux will piss you off too till you get the hang of it. Also you may go through ten or more Linux OS before you find one you like. When you do find it you will love it. At least it don’t cost anything to try, and if you like it you get to keep it. Not like Micro$haft.

@Sterling- so far the only way I can find is using task manager, none of the shortcuts I know of will shut them down. However when you leave a Metro app it is suspended so it doesn’t take processor time just memory.

More: Some have complained about it’s gearing towards touchscreens and honestly I don’t mind. (I have a 22″ touch screen.) However true to claims Windows 8 does use less memory and less CPU than Windows 7, and booting is quite quick… after the first time.

Hi, I m trying to install win 8 32-bit on my laptop having win 7 already installed. I started setup using DVD, selected partition to install in and when the setup comes to “Expanding Windows Files” It gives me an error after completing just 1% that….

“Windows could not install required files. The file may be corrupt or missing. Make sure that all the files required for installation are available and restart the installation. Error code 0x80070570″

And the same error I got when I tried to install it from bootable USB.
Please help.

After so many comments, I don’t know if you will get way down to this one, but . . . I followed your instruction and installed on my Asus eee pc 1005pe, dual boot with Win 7 Home Prem, 2 gig., 32 bit. Everything runs perfect. Legacy programs like Control Panel, Calculator, Kindle, Notepad, etc. all run. But , NONE of the other APPs will open. I don’t know if this is wrong or not. You show that you have run some like picstream, etc but I can’t open them. Can’t even run the browser from the Metro screen, but I can’t run it from the desktop!

What am I missing?

PS: I too love Win 7 and it’s going to be a hard sell for me to switch. Maybe if I had a tablet, but not on a PC or laptop, netbook, etc. I love my Android phone and would probably lean that way for tablet also.

To all those not able to run the majority of metro apps: i had the same problem on my 10.1″ toshiba notebook. It is because the metro apps will ONLY work on a screen resolution of 1024×768!!! Says it when you download the iso file! My notebook would not let me change from 800×600, so after a bit of research I installed intel video drivers from the toshiba website for windows 7. I was then able to go up to a 1024×600 resolution…close, but not enough! So finally, after a bit more research, I found a really easy reg hack which enabled me to select a higher resolution in display settings…finally on 1024×768 and ALL the metro apps now work perfectly!!! The resolution looks great on my notebook too!! Hated the 800×600 that it was trying to force me to stay on!! Hope this helps people!!

update: I reinstalled 8 and was determined to make it work, and my perseverance paid off, I got my wireless network adapter to work ( I have a wireless modem from my ISP though it has wired capabilities everyone in my house uses a laptop except me and the placement of the modem just makes it more convenient to have it wireless) so this time it registered because I have internet access. I disabled Metro, I seriously do not like that, I will re-enable it eventually when I’m feeling like being frustrated and want to learn it more. Other than that, its a updated version of windows 7, so far i like it for that. oh, and I have my resolution set to 1920×1080 and all the metro apps work fine, I have a 23″ monitor and that’s the highest setting for it. I read a lot of people having troubles with it, because of resolution settings, don’t know that this info matters, just thought id share that as well. anyways, to make a long story short, without Metro, its a nice OS basically 7 with a SP 2? LOL so I like it, now that I have internet access, before that it was nothing, it didn’t fully function. worth checking out if you can make it work. I did do an upgrade from 7 to 8, so it is my main and only operating system on this computer, I don’t mind if I have to reformat and go back to 7 when 8 becomes defunct. sorry for such a long post :D LOL it’s just exciting being part of this.

“Windows Explorer overhauled…” Hell, it’d be nice if it simply WORKED. I’ve been dealing with increasingly frequent “Windows Explorer has stopped working,” messages over the last few months, and Explorer showing multiple instances in the task manager… and Microsoft pretending that the problem doesn’t exist–or that it’s somehow unique to my computer (it’s not).

If Windows 8 is built with what seems to be MS’s usual thoroughness, then it’s just going to be another good-looking but lousy OS, “Brought to you by Microsoft.”

Just looking at this desktop clearly shows how out of touch Microsoft is with the people who use their software on a daily basis. That desktop is absurd for starters. Second the ribbon that they use in the recent version of office are simply ridiculous and huge space wasters. All they seem to want is the money they want for a new version. There seems to be no vision here from Microsoft.

This makes my transition to Mac OS make more sense every single day. ;)

Come on guys. What do you want in windows? As a programmer ans user I want a Windows with less bugs that runs faster, takes less space and access to my programs faster. I think Windows 8 will take more memory to run and more disk space. Not good for performance amelioration. Plus plenty of bugs in Windows 7 (unsolved), so how many bugs do you think will there be in Windows 8. And from the looks of the interface, I saw an Apple ipad for 519$. Looks a hell of a lot like windows 8. So you people who likes working with just pictures and icons, make yourself a favor and get and ipad (windows 8 lookalike) right now. there is even a touchpad so you don’t have to type anything. Lastly, for those who can still read, pray for a new service pack for windows 7.

Guys, I respect your opinions of the new OS, but try to keep in mind that technology is constantly evolving. Many devices (like ipod, ipad, smartphones, etc…) already completely rely on its touchscreen for navigation. (And everything else.) What makes you think that laptops aren’t going to adopt built-in touchscreens in the near future? Microsoft is simply predicting the next generation of cpu models and making a windows OS that will work flawlessly with them.
I agree that windows 8 with a mouse is just ugly. (Yes, I did install it.) And win 8 could still use some improvements; but the it’s the thought that counts.

I tried out Win8 last night and didn’t see it as a must have upgrade to Win7. After reading this article, however, I’m going to give it another shot. The new task manager, and most importantly the new file versions features (can you say “Time Machine” at last?) alone are worth another look. I’m still not ready to like the Metro interface because I’m not a social network / photo sharing / casual PC gaming addict. Unless there’s a group policy setting for the Win7 interface to be the default — and they add the classic start menu back in that mode — I don’t see business embracing Win8 right away.

I installed windows 8 two days ago on my new vmware 8 it took 20-24 minutes to install,I used it without proper hardware acceleration and it was just fine.Then I tried it on my physical drive now the experience was awesome.
But one thing is still bugging me with windows 8 how do close/exit full screen metro apps(I have to do it using taskbar quite annoying)
This windows is more performance oriented then windows 7 :
Quick bootup,clean design,much easier accessibility,low ram footprint (All of it in Preview Version).

This is a great learning tool for the Windows 8 preview. I just installed it yesterday on a new build and it really is fast Once the learning curve completed this will be a great improvement over previous versions of Windows. I want to thank HowToGeek for the great job they are doing. KUDOS!

I have posted them in two seperate posts, but my posts are ‘awaiting confirmation from moderator’ or something like that! here is the link split up so that it does not get blocked on here: Just remove the spaces and follow the instructions on the website:

1. How can I open two instances of an application using Metro? I can’t.
2. How can I close a Metro app to free some memory? I can’t.
3. Where’s the button to use the good old desktop interface? There’s no button but a horrible hack.
3. CTRL+ALT+DEL -> memory use 1.1Gb. Wow… WinXP took 256Mb.

Okay i gotta say im a litle late on this because its just friday i read about the windows 8 pre beta….anyway i installed it using dual boot…wiped it of and installed it again…no problem…tested all programs and installed all windows 7 apps i love.( msn 2011, firefox, rocketdock photoshop blabla)..actually i use it as my primary os…the only conflict i get is when i want to boot in windows 7 i first get the new screen of death(the sad smile) that my pc ran into an error…and needs to restar, it then restarts and windows 7 boots without any problem… well my specs : dual core, 2.2 Ghz, intel chipset. , 4gigs ram.yea . My first boot used something like 400mb ram but after installing apps i get around 1.1 gig…i have windows 8 installed on both my laptops, no probs.sadly i cant get it to work on a 786ram machine (in wich i can get windows 7 working smoothly).Really requires 1gig and above…. Now my only question is , can i copy a preinstalled windows 8, thats been installed in vmware 8( a friends machine ) and copy it over to my machine (wich doesnt support HV).i already have vmware 8

Take a deep breath.
The last thing I want is to turn my dual-monitor high-res desktop into a giant non-portable smart phone.

I am a power user. Last Friday night, I broadcast 4 HS football games at the same time, viewing and controlling s dozen cameras it 6 different cities on just one of my PC’s. Counting Livestream studios, remotes into desktops, moderating 5 chats, re-encoding game hi-lights, doing instant replays, and posting scores from an addition 20 games, I had more than a dozen windows open.

Obviously, I won’t be using Metro for that.

.But then…. I don’t think Microsoft intends to force everyone to go to metro. I seems obvious to me that when 8 is released, there will either be metro or windows versions of 8, or the user will be able to select which interface to use, or, users can switch back and forth between the different user interfaces.

Think about it. your tablet and desktop will both have the same underlying OS. On yoru tablet, you can use metro for most tasks, but still be able to access a desktop and run your desktop applications in a pinch.

I have several different tablets and smart phones. I seldom used the tablets because they don’t run all the windows applications I need. Instead, I carry a super large Sony laptop ( one of those monsters that won’t fit in any laptop bag.) The tablets all sit in a closet gathering dust. It looks like 8 will finally let me take the applications I need on the road. I’ll have metro for simple tasks like email , GPS, weather reports and contacts, and still have access to the windows tools I need to produce a live broadcast.

I installed and run it now for 30 hrs. no blue screen of death and stable.it is really fast and IE10 has improoved my download speed as well by 1.2 megs. Overall a really great system and crazy fast with the apps. now i love it allready and use it for my day to day home bussiness. as well I am sure it is a great OS and hope it comes out rather sooner than later.

I installed and run it now for 30 hrs. no blue screen of death and stable.it is really fast and IE10 has improoved my download speed as well by 1.2 megs. Overall a really great system and crazy fast with the apps. now i love it allready and use it for my day to day home bussiness. as well I am sure it is a great OS and hope it comes out rather sooner than later.
Thanks Microsoft for giving us the oportunity to give back some of our ideas.

I’ve been using a Win 7 phone for a year now and love it WAY more than my old iPhone. I dig the metro interface on the phone and am looking forward to having it on my O/S as well. For those of you who hate it, relax a little. The “old” start menu will still be an option – no question. Metro is nothing more than a launchpad for applications. I quite like the idea of having the apps I use regularly pinned where I can get at them quickly and easily. And with updated info on each to boot, awesome!

As a point of comparison I just did a count through my start menu. Out of the 252 items in it there are actually only about 22 programs that I use. The rest are all clutter that should be hidden away as options within the specific application.

Thanks for the post. Just downloaded and installed within 2hrs on Dell mini 9 with 16gig ssd. There is 7.5gig left. Cool, just been into registry and gone to standard windows look. Connected to wifi no issues. I will give it a go till March 8th when and if they kick us out :D

1. How can I open two instances of an application using Metro? I can’t.
2. How can I close a Metro app to free some memory? I can’t.
3. Where’s the button to use the good old desktop interface? There’s no button but a horrible hack.
3. CTRL+ALT+DEL -> memory use 1.1Gb. Wow… WinXP took 256Mb.

Got a duel boot setup on a second drive. Used the file transfer wizard from win7 . Now it pretty much looks like my win7 setup except for a nice background spanning two monitors . Looking good so far.
Did find looking for the OFF button troublesome

windows vista sucks and windows 8 beta sucks and the cloud sucks you are setting us up for some one to steal our info windows 8 live is so unsafe it is wrong you say it is safe but the news and internet say no so i say HELL NO sorry about but it is time it stops microsoft mess up we do not like the iphe it sucks the apps on it sucks and windows 7 on the iphone sucks and now you say it is going to run on my pc not in this life you all can stick windows 8 when the sun don’t shine

I’ve read the pdf download about Win8 from microsoft.com and as far as I can see it should be possible to replicate on linux without too much difficulty. Isn’t it just thumbnail shortcuts on the desktop? (More or less)

i installed it today,now when im tryng to pen my game(pop two thrones) its just start,its says i dont have a comatibli driver,i installed required driver and installed in compatility mode and still it doesnt start,in my optinon,windows 8 sucks ,yeah but my problem is where i can get drivers for windows 8?

GEEK TRIVIA

DID YOU KNOW?

A Charlie Brown Christmas, one of the most iconic children’s Christmas specials around, was originally rejected by CBS on the grounds that they didn’t like amatuer child voice actors voicing the characters, the anti-consumerism message, or the musical score.